This invention relates generally to emergency escape slides and, more specifically, to an adjustable escape slide that adapts to adverse airplane attitudes or other conditions that affect the slide angle.
Aircraft evacuation slides are designed to accommodate an apriori sill height and be of an appropriate length to provide an appropriate slide angle under normal conditions. When a commercial airplane lands in certain adverse conditions, such as an engine coming off in conjunction with certain gear-out conditions, the resulting airplane altitude can render existing escape slides unusable at some doors. The angle of the slide must be within a certain allowable ranges to be effective. Outside of these ranges the slide angle is either too shallow to allow sufficient speed, or too steep to allow a safe egress.
Moreover, the escape slides are made of an appropriate length that is also dependent upon the size or model of aircraft the escape slides is used on. This may result in escape slides that are limited only for use on specific fleet airplanes and/or door locations. Ultimately, this leads to market deficiencies because not only are markets required to make additional escape slide variations in part numbers, and designs but also it increases the amount of certifications required.
The present invention comprises a system for determining and adjusting the angle at which an escape slide is oriented. The system comprises an inflatable slide having a primary inflatable slide segment and at least one additional slide segments attached to the primary slide segment. Additionally, a state sensor configured to determine the attitude of the slide when inflated is attached to the slide or to structure surrounding the slide. Further, the system includes an inflation gas source coupled to the primary and at least one additional inflatable slide segments and an inflation controller in communication with the inflation gas source and the state sensor. The gas source and the state sensor operate to cause the gas source to adjust the at least one additional slide segments as a function of the attitude measured by the state sensor.
The present invention further comprises a method for employing an inflatable escape slide wherein the angle of the escape slide is measured or predicted then subsequently adjusted to place the slide in an optimal slide geometry, regardless of aircraft orientation. The method includes deploying a primary inflatable slide segment by releasing the slide segment and inflating, at substantially the same time activating a timing device or pressure sensor. Upon passage of a predetermined amount of time or achieving a desired slide pressure the slide angle is measured or the slide angle is predicted relative to vertical. Next, a determination is made whether the slide angle is within operating tolerances or not. If the slide is within operating tolerances, slide use may begin. However, if the slide use is not within allowable operating tolerances then an at least one additional slide segment attached to the primary slide segment is inflated or deflated to achieve proper slide geometry. Once proper slide geometry is achieved, slide use may commence.
As will be readily appreciated from the foregoing summary, the invention provides and efficient system and method for orienting an escape slide such that optimal slide geometry is achieved regardless of aircraft attitude, size or model.